Meta is doing AI-assisted interviews for software engineers now
Every day that goes by, AI becomes LESS optional
Meta just rolled out an AI-assisted coding round for onsite interviews. It’s still in pilot mode, but candidates are already seeing it in the wild. It’s a huge signal of where software engineering is heading.
Candidates are dropped into a real codebase with thousands of lines, multiple files, dependencies, configuration files. Then they’re asked to add a feature fast. There’s an AI assistant built into the environment (CoderPad’s), but it’s just a tool. You’re evaluated on how you read, reason, debug, and navigate the system.
This isn’t a whiteboard puzzle, which should make some of you happy, but it also means AI isn’t optional here, which will tick off some people.
Why do we care what Meta is doing with their interview process?
Any time a major tech company formally builds AI into its interview process, we should take note. You’ve already seen Shopify and Zapier do something similar.
But Meta’s interview process is historically some of the most structured across the field. This is quite a statement.
Here’s what you should get from this, even if you’re not interviewing at Meta: